How Is Your Prayer Life?

Do you know that prayer is a significant measure of the strength of our faith? In Luke 18:1—8 Jesus’ closing words in this account are astounding—“When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on the earth?” This statement is given in respect to prayer’s importance in the life of His followers.

As Jesus spoke in this passage He was focusing on His followers having an ATTITUDE OF DEPENDENCE. In other words, to the extent to which we realize our total dependence on God is the extent to which we make prayer a priority. Therefore, Jesus says that a follower of His who does not pray as if his or her life depended on it is not living by faith. So, how is your prayer life? Are you running daily on prayer?

Father, forgive us for how little we depend on you. For how little we depend on prayer. Help us this day to see our need and to respond in prayer.

Father, Help Us To Be People Of Prayer

What is it that Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them how to do? No, it was not preaching, healing, performing miracles, evangelizing, worshipping,… The part of Jesus’ life that had the greatest impression on them to the point that they wanted to know how they could do the same was Jesus’ prayer life. In Luke 11:1 after Jesus had finished praying a disciple asked Him to teach them how to do what He had been so dependent on. Jesus then gives them a quick outline for prayer, which we also see in Matthew 6:9—13.

Here is an outline for praying this prayer that the Lord gave to me. It is summarized in the acrostic R.E.A.C.H. It has blessed me in organizing my prayers, I pray that it will do the same for you:

Recognize God. Exalt God
Encourage God’s Will. Desire His Kingdom will to rule.
Ask for needs. Requests our needs not our greed.
Confess….. Confess
Hold on to God. Ask God to deliver from temptation.

Father, help us to be people of prayer.

Don’t Forget To Act

In the birth account of Jesus there are two individuals who stand in stark contrast to each other—Zecharias and Simeon. As we noted this Sunday from Luke 1:5—23 Zecharias was a priest who should have been looking for the coming of the promised man of God, the Messiah. Yet when the announcement came that God had begun to fulfill His promise Zecharias’ lack of expectancy verged on unbelief. On the other hand Simeon was not only expecting the coming of the Messiah but Luke 22—28 tells us that he was actively looking for this special person to be revealed to him.

What was the difference? The difference between these two godly men is that one lived out his expectation in his daily life while the other’s expectation was limited to what he believed.

In this special 40 Days of Prayer season when we’re asking God to bless our church let us combine our expectancy with our actions. As we go through these 40 Days let us have an attitude of expectancy where we not only believe God’s promises but that we also act upon them. So, combine with your prayers these actions:

Faith Sharing— Seek opportunities to share your faith daily.

Followers of Jesus— Commit to participate in upcoming discipleship opportunities.

Families— Plan to participate in marriage, singles, and family strengthening opportunities as they are announced.

Fellowship— Commit to reach out to members & attendees of Grace and to interact with them according to biblical instruction in order to grow us as a biblical community.

In this Christmas season do you believe God’s promises that He will answer our prayers? Do you believe that He will bless us as a church as we enter 2010? If so, Live Out Your Expectation!

Thanks

I want to thank you for your partnership in my outreach yesterday to a person I’ve been building a relationship bridge to for a few months now. Your prayer for increased ‘Faith Sharing’ during the 40 Days of Prayer opened a great opportunity for me to invite this person to faith in Christ.

Please don’t underestimate the faith sharing/holiday invitation extending opportunities you will be having during this season of prayer for Paul knew its great value— “and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak” (Ephesians 6:19—20).

Faith Sharing—Praying that the Lord would give boldness & opportunities to our body to see more nonbelievers trust in Jesus.

Followers of Jesus—Praying that we would see more disciples (sold out followers of Jesus) developed at Grace.

Families—Praying that we would see more marriages, singles and families strengthened in their walk together and with the Savior.

Fellowship—Praying for more members & attendees to deepen their commitment to one another for us to experience biblical community.

Don’t Underestimate The Effect

“For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars.”  2 Cronicles 16:9

There is great power when people unite around a cause,*
Yet there is even greater power when the people of God unite around God’s cause! ~

I know our 40 Days are special in the eyes of God as we His people unite for a cause that is in His will. Remember, we are calling out to the Lord for MORE—

Faith Sharing—Praying that the Lord would give boldness & opportunities to our body to see more nonbelievers trust in Jesus.

Followers of Jesus—Praying that we would see more disciples (sold out followers of Jesus) developed at Grace.

Families—Praying that we would see more marriages & families strengthened in their walk together and with the Savior.

Fellowship—Praying for more members & attendees to deepen their commitment to one another for us to experience biblical community.

*  Note God’s coming down to examine, admire, but thwart the united ation of humanity to disobey God in building the great ………….Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:5—8).

~ Note the promise of Jesus that where as little as 2 or 3 are gathered in agreement He would show up (Matthew 18:20).

Thirsts

“God thirsts to be thirsted after.”  —Saint Augustine

This is one of the days I have signed up to fast during our 40 Days of Prayer and having selected to ‘food fast’ I already sense my thoughts running towards my need for food and eating. Yet as Augustine so beautifully points out there is a greater need I have which is to connect with the God who I can not do without and is even more vital to my life than food.

It is for this reason that throughout the Bible God’s people have put aside eating or some other activity that they have come to enjoy in order to connect with Him. As we go through these 40 Days it is my prayer that the Lord will draw you closer to Himself as you pray for your church family and our being strengthened to do more for our Heavenly Father in the new year and years to come.

Remember, we are calling out to the Lord for MORE—

Faith Sharing—Praying that the Lord would give boldness & opportunities to our body to see more nonbelievers trust in Jesus.

Followers of Jesus—Praying that we would see more disciples (sold out followers of Jesus) developed at Grace.

Families—Praying that we would see more marriages & families strengthened in their walk together and with the Savior.

Fellowship—Praying for more members & attendees to deepen their commitment to one another for us to experience biblical community.

Don’t Lose Heart

As we noted in Luke 18:1—8 yesterday, there are two options when it comes to prayer—Use it to gain strength or neglect it to the loss of our strength. These options are noted in the descriptive given in 18:1 “to lose heart” as the Greek word has the meaning to lose strength resulting in our succumbing to a force pressing against us.  The option, therefore, is to stay strong by depending on God which is evidenced by our continually engaging with Him through prayer. This is noted in 18:7 where we note that what kept the widow going was her need and her confidence that this judge was the only one who could meet her need. Therefore, she went against what was obvious—‘no totally corrupt judge would help a powerless old woman who could not benefit him”—to wholeheartedly pursue and force him to provide what she needed.

This is a key aspect of prayer in that it reveals the greatest motivation for prayer and the greatest reason why we don’t pray—our view of the key place God holds in our lives. Our view of God is then the reason why Jesus states a pivotal conclusion in the final statement of this section. If prayer is not central to your lives then it is a key indication of our lack of faith (18:8).

I pray that you will make the choice throughout the day to gain strength during those moments when your experiences are working to drain away your strength. Remember that our greatest need this day is to walk in intimate connection with God, the source of our strength.

Our Vision/Destination:
A Church Family where the Triangle will see, hear, & touch the diversity of God’s grace.

Humble Yourselves under The Mighty Hand of God

Peter commands us in 1 Peter 5:6 to ‘humble’ ourselves under God, but why is this such an important command in order for us to survive during challenging times? The reason is that the Greek word denotes an act of dependence, or submission to the will of God. Such action moves us to place our full trust in God that He is both capable of controlling & using our situation to bring about His goals, and that His actions are motivated by His love for us as He takes us through these challenging times.

As we face the challenges before us this day, and we will face challenges, remember that our first response to them should be to communicate to the Father in prayer so that we might humble ourselves to His lead. “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:6

Are you investing wisely?
INVEST in someone and INVITE them to church

Who Is In Control?

The challenge we focused on yesterday was based on 1 Peter 5:6—7 as we were challenged to ’Lose Control.’ We have been raised to think that we must daily be in total control of our lives and all that influences it. But let me relieve you from this false pressure as the new week begins—‘You can let go, you are not in control. Prayerfully cast your challenges to God. He is the only one who is totally in control.’

“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” Get ready for a life changing paradigm switch on your existence as we will all have “One Month to Live” in January!

What Are You Allowing Christ to Place In Your Life?

“Life does to you what life finds in you.” As much as we may not like to admit it, this is a very accurate saying. But there is a major change in this statement for those who are Christians for life can only do to us what God allows. Yet even as Christians we can get stressed out by what God allows, can’t we? So the change I would make to this saying is “Life does to Christians what they have allowed Christ to put in them.”

Jesus tells us through a parable in Luke 18:1-8 that a major way in which God builds Christ likeness into our lives is through our persistency in praying to Him. Our persistency in seeking God to provide our needs and to care for us is such a key indicator that Jesus states that it will be a key indicator when He returns of just how real our faith is. For that reason He ends His parable with this incredible statement—“When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”

So, what are you allowing Christ to place in your life? Are you praying? Please take some time today to pray like your life depended on it, for it does!

Get ready for a life changing paradigm switch on life as we will all have “One Month To Live” in January!

Pray Without Ceasing

1 Thessalonians 5:17

Today is a key day in our commitment to prayer. I hope that you have already begun to pray for our body on a daily basis but today we join together to fast, to meet, and to pray. If you have eaten something mistakenly or out of a deep sense of need that is okay commit to putting off food to focus on prayer till 6 p.m. Please join many of your brothers & sisters today at noon here at the church for prayer as well. If you can I’ll see you then.

Again, this season of prayer is to request that we will see lives given to Jesus as Savior, that some will finally yield their lives to go Beyond All Limits in their walk with the Lord, that the Lord will provide year end needs, and that the Lord will prepare us to do even more for His kingdom in 2008.